Lorenzo: “I almost crashed on the first lap”

Several near misses see Jorge Lorenzo battle to stay upright during Q2, but the World Championship still secured pole for the Qatar GP.

For the 62nd time in his career Jorge Lorenzo will line up in pole position for a World Championship race, the most of any rider on the current grid. Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) had held this honour but the Majorcan has now surpassed that with 36 MotoGP™ poles, 23 250cc poles and 3 125cc poles. Lorenzo set a 1’54.543 to secure the top spot on the grid, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider setting his best lap on his second from six total. He had tried to improve his time during his second run, but a moment forced Lorenzo to stand up and also prohibited him from getting a final flying lap.

Lorenzo heads into the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar with the aim of victory and defending his MotoGP™ World Championship crown. Despite having won the title three times, Lorenzo has never taken back-to-back titles in the premier class. He has twice won the Qatar GP, in 2012 and 2013, but the past two years have seen him encounter troubles in the race. In 2014 Lorenzo fell as he tried to escape at the front while in 2015 a helmet issue saw him unable to maintain the pace to challenge for even a podium.

Jorge Lorenzo: “It‘s not bad to have this record for most pole positions on the first weekend of the championship. Today it has been quite difficult to keep calm and try not to crash, because sometimes you have a good feeling with one rear tyre and you put in another and you have a different feeling. This is what happened on my second try, I almost crashed on the first lap, but luckily on my first try, my first lap was enough to keep the pole position. I expected to be a little bit faster and that everyone would come closer to the 1‘54.0s, but finally this 1‘54.5s was enough to be on pole.”